Lebanese Agree On Airport Plan

July 19, 1985|United Press International

BEIRUT, LEBANON — Rival Moslem and Christian gunmen fought fierce battles in Beirut Thursday as a security committee trying to end the violence agreed on ways to police the airport where the American hostage drama was played out.

Lebanese Defense Minister Adel Osseiran and a 13-man coordinating committee in charge of a new Syrian-backed security plan met Thursday and decided all militiamen must withdraw from the seafront airport in Beirut`s southern suburbs.

The airport and the Green Line -- a no-man`s land of shattered buildings dividing the Moslem western sector from the Christian east -- are now the coordination committee`s major concerns.

On the Green Line, Christian and Moslem militiamen fought with heavy artillery, rockets and mortars for 10 hours until a cease-fire halted the clashes, military sources said.

One person was killed and six were injured in the fighting as shells crashed into apartment buildings and homes more than 12 miles from the devastated city center, the sources said.